Haryana guest teachers mark 77 days of protest, cite court rulings for regularisation

Guest teachers in Haryana government schools on Monday continued their sit-in outside the Secretariat in Kurukshetra, marking the 77th day of their agitation demanding regularisation of services.

The protest, led by the Rajkiya Anubandhit Adhyapak Sangh, involves two teachers sitting on a 24-hour rotation every day. The association said the teachers are demanding implementation of the state government's 2014 regularisation policies, citing recent judgments of the Supreme Court and the Punjab and Haryana High Court that they claim have strengthened their case.

The teachers, appointed between 2005 and 2008, are working as Junior Basic Teachers, Trained Graduate Teachers, and Post Graduate Teachers on a contractual basis. Around 12,000 guest teachers are employed against sanctioned posts, according to the association, with nearly 55% of them being women.

Dinesh Yadav, state president of the association, said the government has no legal option left after losing cases in both the High Court and the Supreme Court. "We have won the case in the High Court as well as the Supreme Court. The government had gone before the Division Bench [of the High Court] against the Single Bench judgment [of the High Court], but that too was rejected. As far as I understand, the government has no legal option left," he said.

Despite the favourable rulings, the government has not yet initiated the regularisation process. Bhupinder Singh, state general secretary of the association, said a delegation of teachers had met the Education Minister, the Additional Chief Secretary, and other senior officials, but no concrete assurance has been given so far.

The dispute centres on two regularisation policies — a three-year policy and a 10-year policy — framed in 2014 under the Congress government. The association claims that teachers covered under the three-year policy fulfilled all conditions but were not regularised, while guest college teachers under the same policy were later given permanent status.

Mr. Singh said the regularisation process could not be completed earlier because the model code of conduct came into force ahead of the 2014 Assembly elections, which brought the BJP to power in the state for the first time. He also referred to the BJP's 2014 election promise to regularise guest teachers appointed in 2005-06 and clear arrears from their appointment dates. Mr. Singh recalled that Ram Bilas Sharma, then state BJP president, had said the issue would be taken up in the first cabinet meeting if the party came to power.

Legal proceedings have seen several twists. After the BJP government assumed office, it put the 2014 policy on hold on May 5, 2015, for review. The stay was lifted in 2016. Later, school guest teachers approached the High Court, arguing that they were covered under the policy but had not been regularised.

Subsequently, a public interest litigation was filed challenging the validity of the two policies. In 2018, the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed both policies. Those who had already been regularised moved the Supreme Court and obtained a stay.

The association said the Supreme Court, in a judgment dated April 16 this year, upheld the validity of the three-year policy while quashing the 10-year policy. Teachers then approached the High Court seeking implementation of the policy. The association also cited a High Court judgment dated May 27, which it said directed the regularisation of eligible guest teachers.

The teachers have been staging the protest outside the Secretariat in Kurukshetra, the home city of Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini. With the government yet to take a decision and the teachers insisting on implementation of the policy, the agitation appears likely to continue indefinitely.